IMHO I would use milk jugs, take the cap off to begin with. Use a knife and stab the bottom and twist the knife to make drainage holes (I usually have about 4 decent size holes). Cut in half right below the handle, leaving a hinge where the handle is. Fill with soil right up to the cut line. Soak the potting mix (I use the kitchen sprayer) until well saturated and let drain. Sprinkle your seeds (do some easy quick sprouters like alyssum, bachelor buttons, snapdragons). Spray again or pat the seeds into the soil. Tape the jug up, label the bottom half, and set outside.

I think my first year I did about 80 jugs of which about 60 germinated. There will probably always be some that don't.

How did you do things last year?

I try to use containers that are at least 3 inches deep. Also, what did you plant and when?

Leisa

Hi, Last year I winter sowed in late December I planted everything in take out food containers about 3" deep with clear plastic lids. I punched holes in the bottom and top and filled to aboout .5" from the top with potting soil. I planted Astilbe, coneflower (Rudbeckia and Echenecia), morning glory and blanket flower. out of two containers of morning glory exactly 2 germinated maybe I planted 25 seeds. nothing else came up. I have never had sucsess getting Echenecia to germinate never tried astilbe or blanket flower before and have had plenty of luck germinating rudbeckia and morning glories inside.

I left the conttainers in a shady spot so that they would stay moist but they were never really ver moist not dry but not extremly moist either they were in short just right.

I would use milk jugs except all of our milk comes in paper cartons and I have not been collecting. I have plenty of containers with lids though that would work great for seed starting.

just as a side not I started spinach and lettuce last year in a clear plastic egg carton around this time of year last year outside and had 8 out of 12 germinate

I take back that part about 8 out of 12 germinating. 8 of the seeds were spinach/ lettuce and the rest was coneflower echanecia and did not germinate

Do you have any large containers that would give you enough space to have 3" of soil and a few inches for head room? I tried the lasagna pans with the dome lids and failed miserably with them, but have found that 2liter bottles and milk jugs to work great. Can you have friends/family save some for you? Do you have a Starbucks close by?

Hmm, maybe they needed more sun? Silly question, I'm sure, but you DID wet the soil before sowing, right?

Your depth sounds okay. A little deeper would be better, but 2.5 inches should be deep enough to get germination. The depth comes more into play after the seedlings sprout. How big around were the containers, and how many seeds did you put into them - although, really, that shouldn't make a difference as far as germination, now that I think about it. Again, that matters more after sprouting.

I'm wondering if maybe they just needed more sun...? Maybe a tad more moisture...?

:)
Dee

I always have a few jugs that don't sprout. Maybe you should dive right in and sow a lot of containers.

I always soak mine when I sow them and they stay pretty stinking wet for that first month (when I sow in Dec/Jan/Feb). Also, I had a jug of Rudbeckia that I had sown in Jan that first year that did not sprout until August for some reason.

Did you use the same soil for each container? When I hear of a total failure the first thing I consider is the soil.

Drainage holes on the bottom are much more likely to ice over than holes about one-half inch up the side. (Ask me how I know.)

Holes in the side. Good idea. I expect failures, just don't have any idea what. Keep trying, sowed more adenophora bulleyana which is very stubborn.

I've sowed so many different kinds this time I'll know more in a couple months. My first year wasn't too hot but got a lot of some. 3 out of 20 or so milk jugs nothing, some just a few.

I do use almost 3 inches, also dampen thoroughly B4 I sow. Some don't much.

There could be a number of factors that made your wintersowing a failure..

1. What was your source for the seeds? How old where they? Where they commercial?

2. How did you store the seeds before you wintersowed? In a dark container with cooler temps and low humidity?

3. What did you use for soil? Was it a soiless mix like promix? Was it another source like miracle grow? Or was it jsut soil from your garden? Cheap top soil?

4. From my experience those items you listed are very easy wintersowers... you should have NO problem with any of them if everything is vialble. I wouldve waited until March to do the blanketflowers and morning glories, I wouldve done the rudbeckia in feb-march and the echenicia in dec or jan.

Silverkelt

the seeds were all from trades or harvested from my garden. the rudbeckia was the oldest from 2008 but everything else was fresh for 09. I used a soiless potting mix although I don't think it was as high quality as promix. I would like to sow a bunch of different things this year and besides using a deeper container and punching holes in the sides I'd like to know what if anything I should do differently.

I've had both ruds & echs fail to germinate for me via WSing. I recall both failing in the same year. Not sure why.

Here's my only tip: Over-sow.
While I assume you didn't cover the rud seeds, but merely pressed them into the soil, try simply sowing many more. The way I figure it, the more I sow, the lower my non-germ rate will be ;) Ie: I always expect some ridiculously conservative germ rate, and I allow for the non-germ ones. So I over-sow to accommodate those. I figure I can always give away the extras, but it would be a bummer to not have any.

Milk jugs
draingage holes no caps
water every day with a hose
watch for them to sprout each day
About 100 percent all sprouted for me , mostly tomatos and flowers, poppys , cosmos petunias lettuce

ml

I would have thought it was your soil also,maybe you started some of them to soon?
My first year, I sowed Sun Flowers in December,nota!

A few weeks ago, I did about 10 containers of columbines,if our friends here, would not have told me when I sowed them, that they will be the very last to germinate, I may have tossed them, but now I know, I will be babying them well into fall, and they will bloom next year.

Don't give up,oh, and I use the 1/2 gallon paper milk cartons, so far, they are my favorite, I cut mine length ways,you will get more seeds in there.
Good luck,and have fun.
cAROL

It sounds like you did everything right, but with down right shockingly bad results. :(
Hmmmm.
The only thing I can think of is you didn't do the Naked solstice dance.
But that shouldn't have mattered cause I don't do it either.lol.
Don't give up. It really does work. try again. Good luck.
:)Laura

Did you have plenty of condensation going on inside the containers?

Oh no! You mean you can do everything right and they still might not sprout?

You guys are freaking me out. I think need to stop reading this thread until something sprouts in my containers.

I'm a worrier by nature - this isn't helping.

Come on, just something sprout already!

for Erika-

"Worrying works. 90% of the things I worry about never happen."

Hey ,
I think I know what happened. Where these takeout containers black, with a clear snap on lid? If they were, you might have cooked your seeds. Those get really hot in the sun, because they aren't very deep.
Just thinking out loud.
:)Laura

Hello, The containers were white versions of thise black containers so I don't think everything got roasted. I'm going to try some of the suggestions I got here this weekend. I'll let everyone know if / when I get sprouts.
Thanks for the help!

-DLF